Trend Micro Hopes To Spread Mobile Antivirus

Trend Micro is giving away its antivirus and anti-spam software for
smartphones until June, the company announced today, but how necessary that software is remains unclear.

"It's a solution in search of a problem," analyst Ed Moyle of SecurityCurve
told TechNewsWorld.

Moyle added, however, that the software will provide enterprises with a useful way to gain more control over
employee devices that access their networks.

Trend Micro Mobile Security Version 1.0 for the Windows Mobile 2003
operating system is available now. Devices using Symbian 7.0, Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition will be supported in starting in January.

Phone Viruses

The software protects against viruses and SMS spam messages. The first
mobile phone worm, Cabir, was discovered in June and targeted phones using
Symbian.

A second virus, Skulls Trojan, also targeted Symbian on Nokia 7610 phones, and last month a variant of Skulls Trojan was discovered. The original version disabled smart-phone functionality, such as SMS and MMS
messaging, Web browsing and the built-in camera. The later variant also
infects the phone with Cabir, which uses Bluetooth to copy itself onto
devices as far as 30 feet away.

Diversity Slows Viruses

Because there are so many different phone platforms and
different software within the platforms, Moyle said, mobile phone viruses face more
barriers to proliferation. Different model phones within the same
family often use different software as well.

"To get viruses to spread as quickly as PC viruses, the virus would have to
be pretty intelligent, and most aren't," Moyle explained.

But the consolidation of mobile operating systems and standards will change
that.

"Trend Micro is betting that we will see more viruses as phone platforms
standardize, and [that] users will already be standardized on Trend," he said.

Spam-Blocking

The spam feature of the package may be immediately more interesting, because
bandwidth is money. Software that can prevent unwanted messages from coming
through will save users cash.

Trend Micro's Version 1.0 will expire at the end of June. After that, users
will have to pay for updates. FB-4, a provider of security applications for
Symbian smartphones, includes Virus Guard on some phones sold in North
America. Airscanner, F-Secure and Symantec also offer versions of mobile
security software.

In October Japanese company Japanese NTT DoCoMo and
Network Associates announced they were working together to develop antivirus
software for mobile phones.